General Grievous vs. Darth Maul
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To many, it was a junk world. A place throughout history where the beings of the galaxy parted ways with the useless and weak…whether sentient or non-sentient, it didn't matter. However, the stars of the outer rim territories were about to witness this desolate, dead world become a battlefield as Grievous's ship touched out of hyperspace and descended towards the planet's toxic atmosphere.
The cyborg Supreme Commander wasted no time logging his co-ordinates, despite the interference coming from the acid rainstorms the planet was well known for. His breathing was weak, but his resolve and focus remained strong. He had a mission, and he would not fail. Dooku's orders echoed in his mind over and over again, to kill the Sith traitor that had once served the Dark Lord. His black and gold eyes lit up at the chance of a new challenge and adding a brand new lightsabre to his growing collection.
However, he knew that if Dooku's warnings were true, this would not be an easy task. This Sith was once taught under Darth Sidious himself, something that Grievous had never managed to achieve despite his insistence. He believed he would become a truly perfect weapon with Sidious enhances his skills. Though Dooku was impressed with Grievous's skills, he considered the cyborg naive and foolish. Even the wise Sith Master has not perfected his knowledge of the Dark Side yet. He didn't believe for a second that Grievous was ready for something of equal measure.
This angered Grievous greatly. But, the moment he heard of their spies locating the fugitive Maul's location to Lotho Minor, he knew that this was his moment. To prove himself worthy, he would kill Maul.
With the continuing deadly rainfall, Grievous had to find somewhere safe to land. Soon enough, he found a stable landing spot protected from the harsh environment. Nestled underneath the rusted wing of an old space freighter ship, he landed before his ship's shields gave out from the acidic rain. He rose from the captain's chair before opening a storage compartment holding his many trophies. A wheezy cough escaped him whilst fitting a dozen varying lightsabres.
Once the ship's door opened and lowered itself, the heated soil began to burn the platform upon contact. Sizzling smoke blew in the frantic wind, also causing Grievous's cloak to flap wildly as he stepped out and surveyed his surroundings.
He would have to move at a rapid pace if he was to be constantly covered from the rain while covering as much ground as possible. From his holster, he took out a small device that upon opening revealed a holographic map, empty at first, until he lifted it as high as possible above him. The device lit up, and a ray of light hovered along the physical landscape as far as the eye could see. After a moment, Grievous lowered his hand, and the holographic map showed a detailed map of the surrounding area. At least as detailed as possible, the rain was most likely not helping matters.
With a heavy and harsh exhale of breath, he dashed forward. The cloak took most of the drizzle, causing it to spit and hiss with every droplet. It was never meant for this purpose, but it didn't matter, as long as he kept finding more debris to shelter under every few seconds, he would survive until he found his target.
This continued for what felt like hours. Maul had gone into hiding for this long from both Sith and Republic, so finding him would not be an easy task. Grievous's patience was beginning to grow thin.
After a while, he came across what appeared to be the discarded statue of some off-world alien dictator. Standing as tall as a mountain, it was bent at the waste, leaving the top half exposed to the elements of this world with the bottom half shielded by surrounding debris, Grievous theorised this statue must have been here for years going by the fading and cracked structure of the top half.
Keeping as still as possible, his slit eyes glanced downward to the device in his hand, spotting something being picked up silently on the radar…something organic approaching very closely behind him. Thanks to his silver cloak shielding his back, his stalker would fail to notice Grievous's other arm detach from his main left arm, reaching for two small grenades. He didn't want to bother wasting any more time with some hungry creature looking for a lost, wandering meal.
Like a blur, he sharply turned and tossed the flashing grenades in the direction of his follower.
BOOM! BOOM!
The explosion sent debris flying everywhere and caused the remnants of a ship to cave in and allow the acidic rain to fall hard, but not on the area that Grievous stood. Now with whatever annoyance that followed him burnt to a crisp, he could continue onwards…that is until his device picked up the very same life form circling around him at unbelievable speeds. For a split second, he was shocked, no creature could react that quickly in time to dodge and still keep up the hunt…unless…
The hunter was the hunted.
He didn't need to search for Maul any longer.
No longer needing to hide, a shadowy, black-cloaked figure leapt from the debris and landed behind the cyborg. An irritated growl came from Maul's lips as he rose to his feet, the two warriors standing back to back from each other.
Grievous had a clear height advantage, not that it would matter in this contest of swordsmanship. The Commander let out a dry chuckle, but Maul was unresponsive. He knew that he was this droid-like figure's target. With slow and graceful patience, he slid the black hood from his head and rolled his shoulders allowing the rest of his cloak to fall to the ground. Grievous followed suit, removing his cloak and allowing it to drift alongside Maul's.
The two warriors stood as still as the decaying statue that watched over them, waiting for the other to make the first move. Maul's eyes scanned towards Grievous's waist, eyeing each of his lightsabres. His hand slowly drifted to his own dual lightsabre held on his belt.
Grievous's own eyes were focused on something else apart from Maul's weaponry, more so on Maul's cybernetic legs. They appeared to resemble Grievous's own by design and showed no sign of fatigue. The cyborg's last remaining organic anatomy, his heart, raced frantically upon seeing the robotic extensions of his opponent. Memories of his life before flashed before him, before all he felt was cold metal. It was as if something triggered him. He couldn't stand the sight of Maul any longer…he wanted nothing more than to cut him down where he stood.
With lightning-like reflexes, Grievous drew out a lightsabre and swung at Maul. The former Sith apprentice used the Force to react quickly to retrieve his own lightsabre, engage it and block Grievous's attack. Maul's robotic legs sunk into the volatile earth under the strength of the cyborg. He gritted his teeth and looked Grievous dead in the eye, showing no sign of fear or weakness.
Grievous snatched another lightsabre and attacked Maul. Catching sight of Grievous's move, Maul switched his lightsabre into the dual mode, causing the second blade to extend and block the strike once more.
It took everything the Zabrak had just to stand his ground. Figuring that he was defenceless, Grievous kicked out at Maul. However, Maul leapt up and blocked the attack with his knee. Metal clashed with metal. The impact caused cracks to appear on the walls around them. Maul manoeuvred his body to roll underneath Grievous's standoff and began a counter attack of his own, swinging and striking with lethal force.
But the cyborg was no amateur. He blocked and parried each and every attack Maul threw at him. The speed that the two brawlers were moving at was breath-taking. Grievous jabbed at Maul, but he jumped high above Grievous, evading the attack and struck his weapon against the debris shielding them from the rain. The cut was large enough to cause a decent amount of acidic liquid to drop down onto where Grievous was standing. Luckily for the Commander, he dashed out of the way in time, but not before Maul was on him again, this time kneeing him in the face and kicked him strongly. Grievous slammed against the base of the statue.
Maul swung his lightsabre, but Grievous ducked out of the way. As he did this, Grievous scattered many smoke pellets on the ground, covering Maul's vision. Not wanting to give him a chance to fight back, the Commander aimed both lightsabres against the weak point of the statue, causing it to become unbalanced. Using the Force around him, Maul easily pushed the smoke away to regain sight of the battle area and seeing the statue crumble and fall on top of him.
Once again, Maul relied on his command of the Force and felt every muscle in his body explode as he lifted his arms and tried to stop the toppling statue from crushing him. Grievous wasn't going to give him any time to recover, charging full speed towards his defenceless opponent. However, Maul was far from defenceless, in fact, he had a new weapon in hand. With a slight movement of his hands, the end of the statue turned in Grievous's direction.
Because of the size and weight of the object, Maul didn't have full control, so the offensive strike was sluggish and slow, giving the cyborg enough time to leap above the attack and land on top of it. A third arm detached and reached form his holster, carrying a small blaster.
Realising what Grievous planned to do, Maul used every ounce of power he had, pulled his arms back and slammed them forward, sending the statue skyrocketing into the air with Grievous still on top. His talons clutched tightly into the metal body, keeping him from falling off, but that may not have been the wisest decision because soon he broke through what was left of the cover keeping them from the rain and was completely exposed to the acidic storm.
He roared in defiance and pain as the droplets of rain burnt his robotic skin. Moving quickly, he put his lightsabres away and ran in the opposite direction the statue was spinning while in mid-air, using his talons to keep a tight grip and hide on the bottom side to stay protected.
Maul took cover and watched from below. What goes up must always come down. He jumped to tremendous heights towards the upper debris and ran from the area of impact, staying hidden beneath the shield of debris.
Up above, the statue finally stopped rising and began to descend back down to the ground. Grievous lowered himself and used his claw-like hands to stay in place, waiting for the right opportunity. The statue fell with greater speed, but Grievous waited for the right moment to let go. He finally spotted Maul below, running away from where the statue would land while keeping covered. The Droid Commander jumped from the statue, allowing the momentum of the fall to propel him like a missile.
Maul couldn't even react in time. He just about glanced upwards to see Grievous crash into him with enough force they plummeted through the layers of the debris. Grievous slammed Maul into the ground, the Zabrak coughed up blood but couldn't afford to slow down, even for a second. Grievous brought out his lightsabre again and stabbed at Maul, who used his arms to grab Grievous's wrist and cause the cyborg to miss and instead hit the ground.
Behind them, the statue finally crashed into the ground, destroying anything and everything around them, including the very ground beneath them. Cracks emerged, and soon the two of them were plunging deeper into the planet.
The two were no longer locked together. Maul spread his arms, making himself as big as possible as he dived down, keeping watch for his opponent. He was shocked to find Grievous running down the vertical landscape, blaster in hand and firing at Maul. The former apprentice brought out his dual-sided lightsabre and blocked all of Grievous's blasts.
He couldn't die today, not at the hands of one of Sidious's pets. Not before he had completed his revenge against the Jedi, specifically…one Jedi that would never leave his nightmares. The anger began to boil inside him, and with a mighty bellow, he Force-Crushed the area that Grievous was running on. The cyborg couldn't control his footing and was unable to run on anything but the air itself.
Maul darted towards Grievous, hoping to finish this with one last strike. Grievous, for the first time in a long time, felt genuinely scared. It was both terrifying and exhilarating. Another pair of arms retracted from his main ones, allowing him to now wield four lightsabres and block Maul's attack. He shoved Maul behind and into the side of the chasm.
A thundering howl left Maul's mouth. It felt like his skin was being shredded off and his spine would break. Thinking quickly, he head-butted Grievous, his horns denting the surface of Grievous's metal skin. Maul kicked at the cyborg, cracking his chest. Maul could then see it, an opening…a weak point, Grievous's heart. He kicked over and over again in the same spot. Grievous yelled in pain but didn't back away. His elbow came crashing down on Maul's shoulder, causing it to snap out of place.
The two of them were so focused on their intense mid-air struggle, they failed to notice stable ground beneath them before it was too late. Maul used the Force to soften his landing, while Grievous dug his claws into the rubble beside them, slowing his fall. They both still landed in a heap. The Zabrak slowly lifted himself, holding his side and spitting out more blood. Meanwhile, Grievous's hand was planted firmly on his chest, but the slightest contact caused the protective shell to fall apart like glass.
He turned to face Maul, only to find he was already charging towards him. Grievous retaliated with all four arms, swinging his whole body at an uncontrollable pace, not allowing Maul a clean shot. Maul spun his weapon and shifted his body just to keep up. The two of them showed no signs of slowing down. They appeared to be on even footing, that is until the rest of the debris came crashing down.
They parted ways to dodge the showers of rock and metal. Noticing a chance to strike while Maul cut at a large rock hurtling towards him. Grievous jumped up on top of a still falling metal sheet and used that for partial protection against Maul. The Zebrak may have managed to cut through the sheet and slice through two of Grievous's arms, however, the cyborg stamped his leg down onto Maul's lightsabre, breaking it in two before crushing Maul's own leg afterwards.
Maul was too shocked to react quick enough as Grievous used one of his arms to grab him by the neck and slam him into the wall. Finally ready to finish this, Grievous's last remaining arm slashed at Maul, who blocked with his arm against the cyborg's wrist. However, Grievous was notably stronger and gradually the heat of the lightsabre began to sting Maul's face. But he still had an opening. With his other arm, Maul reached forward and grabbed Grievous's exposed heart.
Using what little strength he had, both physical and connected with the Force, Maul attempted to crush Grievous's heart before the cyborg's lightsabre cut his head clean off. The two struggled for what seemed like an eternity. Blood began to drip from Grievous's beating heart, and his lightsabre was close enough to graze the warrior's red and black marked cheek.
''You are weak!'' Grievous hissed. ''The Sith were right to cast you out.''
''Tell Sidious that he has every right to be afraid of me.'' Maul retorted.
It was only a matter of seconds before a winner was decided…but fate had other ideas.
Due to the strength of their struggle, the wall behind them gave way, cracking apart and causing an enormous chunk of rubble to fall above them. They didn't retreat at first, hoping to end this before they were crushed, but there wasn't going to be enough time for a winner now. They leapt to either side of the falling rock before it could kill one of them.
Grievous weakly pushed himself back up onto his feet, blood seeping from his heart and down his metal body. He couldn't afford to lose now, not when he was so close, even if he was an inch from death. The Commander looked around, only to find Maul gone. He waited, expecting a surprise attack like before, but there was nothing, the former Apprentice had retreated.
Rage rushed over him, he punched the ground angrily, leaving a small crater behind. A loud yell caused him to go into another coughing fit, not helped by his weakened, bloody organ still somehow beating.
There was no point in using his locater device because it had been damaged in the battle. And Maul has been hiding on this planet for an unimaginable long time, so he would know every tunnel inside and out and could easily escape and hide.
But then a thought occurred to Grievous, why was it so easy to find Maul if that was the case? Perhaps he wanted the challenge? It didn't matter, for now, their duel was a stalemate, and Grievous would have to go back to Dooku empty handed and with empty excuses. In this on-going war, there would be plenty more opportunities to prove himself and earn the respect of Sidious and become more powerful than ever before.
He wandered back to his ship, as one last thought came to mind.
'A shame, his lightsabre would have been a marvellous addition to my collection.'
The End!
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